Where the Red and the Gruene meet!

BANDERA, Texas — Hill Country residents want local bar, who host a lot of big name live music acts to quiet down.

The 11th Street Cowboy Bar, located at 303 11th St., has neighbors who are complaining about the noise pollution. The problem is the city has an ordinance that restricts noise levels above 70 decibels (dbs). Clubs & bars like the 11th Street Cowboy Bar have to apply for special permits to allows for dbs to reach 100. Local area residents against the excessively loud music want the ordinance modified or worse yet, they want the special permits done away with.

The owners of the bar said if the music is stopped because of new ordinances, the city’s tourism money could take a hit. “You take this industry out, we don’t have industry here,” said James McGroarty.

“There have been so many complaints,” Bandera City Councilwoman Monica Halsey said.

“The Charlie Robison concert did not have 40 complaints, as others have claimed; on the Police Department list, there were 16 calls out of eight households, and anonymous calls don’t count,” McGroarty said. “We had a permit. [Mayor] Horst Pallaske signed it. Everything was in place to meet the guidelines. The decibels we measured were at 83 in the street. It’s a fact. Don’t believe the rumors…get your facts straight.”

Thursday evening’s City Council meeting was packed as the issue of special event permits was brought up, but the council decided not to take any action at this time.

“We’ve got to realize what makes this town click, and I’m very upset that one business in town is getting blamed for everything,” resident Rolla Stevens said.

Dan Wise, with the Historical Commission, Celebrate Bandera, and many other groups, said “The sound of that music, and the motorcycles, and the trucks…that’s the sound of money. If you stop it, we will start having to pay some real taxes [to support city infrastructure].”